Below is something I wrote about Gaza. It (probably with some changes to what is below) was published in late Dec. 2023 on the web-site of the Boulder Weekly, but not in the print version of their paper and I can't find it on their site anymore.
Tom
Editor,
I have been a supporter of the Palestinians for about 30
years. In 2002 I convinced the other members of a CU-Boulder group
(Students for Justice in Northern Ireland) that we should endorse the
campus Coalition for Justice in Palestine. In the last 15 years one of
the main topics on my blog is supporting the Palestinians. But an even
bigger part of my blog is about opposing anti-Semitism, and I’m proud to
say that those two parts of my blog overlap heavily.
There are many progressives who reject anti-Semitism but have
failed to condemn Hamas’ Oct. 7th offensive. Although that failure is
not necessarily bigoted, what Hamas did IS bigoted. They are religious
fundamentalists and overwhelmingly targeted civilian life, and it was
Jews they were after. As someone who looks back and supports almost
everything the IRA did in The Troubles, I condemn the Oct. 7th pogrom
but I would not condemn a Palestinian effort that resembles what the IRA
did- targeting the security forces and (using methods that almost
always prevent civilian death) destroying government and commercial
property.
Why would I say something like that? Because although what
happened Oct. 7th was horrible, the Palestinians have very serious and
legitimate grievances. Those Palestinians who are Israeli citizens
experience a fair amount of inequality (the State is officially Jewish,
it cannot be simultaneously democratic). Those in the West Bank have it
even worse (they are state-less (they have no citizenship, and thus no
civil rights)). And those in Gaza the last month have endured a
nightmare much worse than living in the world’s largest open-air prison-
which was their existence for almost two decades until the last month.
They have every reason to be furious at the Israeli state and
Israel’s Jewish population. But intentionally killing civilians in war
is, to one degree or another, wrong, and in this case bigoted.
Palestinians should leave that to Israel and/or it’s settlers, as we see
in the West Bank and Gaza.
There must be a cease-fire in Gaza!
Tom Shelley
Boulder
Boulder
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